A large cruise ship with just 23 years of service was earmarked to be scrapped amid the pandemic. Following an announcement by Carnival Corporation that planss to remove several older vessels from its fleet, it emerged that one of these could be Costa Cruises' 2394-passenger liner Costa Victoria (1996-built).
Francesco Ferrari (Mayor of Piombino Italy) announced on Facebook that the cruise vessel had arrived there in order to be prepared for dismantling. He added that he had welcomed the ship's Master (Captain Gianfranco La Fauci) to Piombino on Tuesday morning, June 23. As of June 27, CruiseMapper's tracker shows the ship anchored off Piombino.
Costa Victoria was in the middle of her voyage when the pandemic hit earlier this year. The liner arrived in Civitavecchia Italy on March 25, where cruise passengers were disembarked and quarantined. A traveler had tested positive earlier in the voyage and got off the vessel in Greece. Another guest died from COVID-19 upon returning back home from Italy to Australia.
Carnival recently announced that it anticipated removing 6 ships from its fleet over the next few months.
The statement said the corporation expected "phased re-entry of its ships, the removal of capacity from its fleet and delays in new ship deliveries."